A popular technique to have in the box of tricks! It is a big compound movement, requiring strength in certain areas, so it can be an efficient way to pack a lot of workout into a small amount of time.
I wanted to put some notes together in a series, to give some details on how people can progress to the muscle up. A key objective of this is injury prevention; especially important for older athletes. We still want to have functional elbows and shoulders for the next 20/30/40 years!!!
In my attempts to progress to the muscle up, I went through several stop-start periods; but I realised a few principles and tips along the way:
- Ideally learn clean technique. Do not try kipping methods (popularised by cross-fit fans) as this does not show you where your weak points are, and potentially can cause injury to joints through improper alignment.
- If possible learn on rings as there is safer alignment of joints
- Build strength in each section of the movement as required.
- By trying clean technique, figure out which part of the movement cannot be completed successfully and work on those elements. Once you have the individual elements, the full technique will even seem easy!
I want to go into an example for the last bullet point, for perhaps one of the most important aspects – the False Grip.
This mantains a high wrist position above the ring/bar, allowing safely pushing up through the dip phase of the movement. Building the forearm strength here can carry over to many other functional movements and gym work (also for sports such as wrestling, judo, BJJ).
In the above pictured sequence, is a movement performed as a negative:
- Starting with a high elbow, high wrist position
- Slowly start to straighten the arm
- Keep the forearm engaged, retaining the false grip as long as possible
- As the wrist gets pulled below the rings/bar, continue slowly straightening the fingers to continue working grip strength to the finger tips
- Re-set and repeat…
This is a great way to finish off a workout, when you no longer need to be gripping onto anything. Be patient and enjoy!!!
(further tips to follow…)
